Boakye: We are always favorites here

Crvena zvezda's winter preparations went well, but with one major setback – Richmond Boakye picked up a calf injury during the Sileks friendly in January. After some intense therapy, our Ghanaian star is fit again, but it's still not clear whether he will start against CSKA Moskva tomorrow.

„There is time still. I will pray that everything goes as planned and that my leg responds well. Missing a week of training was bad, but I'm hoping it won't show on the pitch. I really missed being out there.“

Crvena zvezda's top scorer knows it's all about the team.

„It would be very painful for me to sit this one out, but I will cheer on the boys if that's what's required. I will support this team no matter what because we've done some great things together.“

Richmond is full of optimism ahead of Europa League Round of 32 games.

„It doesn't matter who we are playing. Whether it's CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid or perhaps Barcelona. We're playing at home and we will do our best and try to win. It's going to be a tough game, physically challenging, but we've faced all sorts of teams so far this season and I believe we can compete with the Moscow side. We're a great group of guys here, very united and driven. We play to win.“

Boakye reckons last week's friendy versus Zenit in Antalya was very important for the team's preparations.

„We played another strong Russian team [in Turkey] and even though we lost by a single goal, I felt that we showed that we have the ability to beat sides like that. We have to believe that we are better than CSKA. We have show it on the pitch over two matches, but I believe that we can qualify to the next round.“